Phillip StearnsAn artist working with electronics and electronic media, based in Brooklyn, NY

High Voltage Image Making

High Voltage Image Making is a developing body of work that started with the Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Other Vision Technologies, Real or Otherwise Imagined and has grown to include Polaroid Type 55 @ 15KV. The project explores and extends the expressive capacity of instant photographic film technology beyond its ability to capture images of the world through the application of high voltage and various chemical agents. These treatments approach the film technology as a recording media, capable of creating images from physical, electrical, and chemical transformations. The project takes its cues from artists such as Man Ray (photogram), Pierre Cordier (chemigram), Marco Breuer (scratched expose and developed c-prints), Chris McCaw (sunburned prints) and Hiroshi Sugimoto (static discharges on photopaper).